


The Right-Hand Rule

by lobotomycastiel



Series: RhodeyTony College AU [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Coffee Shops, College, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pre-Canon, Written as Catharsis for the Author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25671133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lobotomycastiel/pseuds/lobotomycastiel
Summary: Tony and Rhodey commiserate over their impending final exams at a coffee shop.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark
Series: RhodeyTony College AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944418
Comments: 16
Kudos: 79





	The Right-Hand Rule

**Author's Note:**

> This was a cute little ficlet I wrote because I, too, am struggling through E&M. Major in engineering, they said. You're good at math and science, they said. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Tony Stark comes to MIT as a “junior by credits”, and introduces himself to his roommate, James Rhodes, as such. 

James Rhodes laughs in his face and tells him to never say that in public. From that moment onward, Tony decides that he likes James Rhodes. Most people don’t laugh at him, they just let him humiliate himself and then extort him for money. 

From then on, Tony goes everywhere with James (which quickly becomes Jim, then Jimbo, then Jimothy, then Jimalamadingdong, which had gotten him a glare and turned into Rhodester, Rhoderage, Rhoderunner, and finally, Rhodey): the library, the dining hall, and especially the cafe across the street, which they’ve jokingly declared their date spot. 

They meet there every single day, and it fills Tony with a delightful sense of normalcy and belonging, the way they have a routine. Rhodey orders blueberry muffins for both of them, and Tony gets them both hot coffees, Rhodey’s with hazelnut creamer and his own with vanilla. 

It’s at this cafe where Tony realizes he has no idea what he’s doing in his E&M class. 

“Do you understand this?” he says to Rhodey, taking his textbook out of his backpack (nearly spraining his wrist because the author decided he needed to write 1,265 pages on _electricity and magnetism_ of all subjects) and pointing to the diagram on page 836, the one with the right-hand rule for curl on it. 

Rhodey looks up from his muffin, which he’s devoured with a voracity that piranhas would be jealous of. “The right-hand rule? Yeah, lemme show you.” He takes a pen out of his own backpack, holds it vertically, and starts explaining. 

“So basically, imagine that this is a thin rod that has a magnetic field around it, and the magnetic field is moving around it counterclockwise.”

“I understand that bit, yeah.” 

“So now curl your hand in the direction of the magnetic field, and the direction that your thumb sticks out is the direction of current.”

“ _That_ I do not understand. How does that make any sense?”

Rhodey sighs. “Just think about the determinant of a 3-by-3 matrix. Take the cross product, you’ll see that the math works out.”

Tony’s face scrunches up in annoyance, and he says, a bit petulantly, “So why can’t I just use the cross product?” 

“Because, dummy, this prof loves to give conceptual questions. No numbers, just you, your hands and brain, and the cold, uncaring eyes of God.”

Tony slams his face down into the textbook, muttering “I hate it when you’re right.”

Rhodey ruffles his hair and tears off a piece of his muffin, handing it to Tony as a peace offering. “No you don’t.” 

“Yeah, I really don’t,” he says, much too fondly for the occasion, and this is when Tony has his second realization of the day. Oh shit. 

Of course he had to do the stereotypical repressed teenager thing and fell in love with his best - and only - friend. Of course he did. 

Rhodey, to his credit, doesn’t look disturbed at all by his tone. He just pokes Tony’s nose and says “Okay, I’ve done my part, now help me with my Materials homework. We’re on polymers.”

Now _this_ Tony is comfortable with. He lets himself get lost in the intricacies of functional groups, polycondensation, and thermosets versus elastomeric versus thermoplastic polymers, the last of which is Tony’s absolute favorite, and he’s pretty sure he goes on a tangent about nylon 66 for longer than necessary, but Rhodey doesn’t look annoyed, so he keeps going. 

By the time he has to take a sip of his now-cooled coffee, Rhodey is grinning at him. 

“What?” He mentally kicks himself for going on the defensive with Rhodey, it’s _Rhodey_ , he’s never mean to him. 

“Nothing! It’s just that you’re cute when you go off about stuff you like.” Well, now Tony’s heart is doing backflips. He can’t let Rhodey know that, of course, so he plays it off. 

“I’m always cute.” 

Rhodey snorts, “Duh. We’re not dating just because you’re a great lab partner. Which you are, by the way. Can you try and get the same section as me next semester for SolidWorks?” 

What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. 

“We’re _dating?_ ” Tony isn’t opposed to this, it makes his life much, much easier, but still. He would have liked some advanced notice. 

“Yes? Do you not remember asking me out six months ago?” 

That sounds like something Tony would remember. 

“Oh my God, you don’t. Oh no.” Rhodey groans and pulls a Tony, burying his face in the still-open textbook. 

“Just to be clear, I’m _very_ willing to be boyfriends, I just want to be filled in on how I lucked out this hard.” 

Rhodey looks up at him, and then straightens up, takes a gulp of his coffee, and recounts exactly what happened six months ago. 

“Do you remember when we went to that Alpha Phi party and you had too many strawberry lemonade vodkas?”

Tony remembers. Well, he remembers the hangover, dry-heaving in the communal toilet stall while listening for the RA’s footsteps, and going out for greasy hash browns and fluffy pancakes with Rhodey afterwards. 

“What did I say?”

“Well, you _said_ that we were soulmates and that we should get married, then _I_ said that my mom would kill me if I got married before letting her meet my partner, and that we should try dating first, and you were sad for three seconds before saying ‘okay’ and then you fell asleep. We went out for breakfast together the next day so I just assumed…” he trails off, clearly embarrassed. 

Now Tony’s just offended. “You mean to tell me that our first date was _hangover food?_ That’s horrible. I’m a billionaire. Well, future-billionaire. We’re going to a Michelin-starred restaurant for our _real_ first date.”

Rhodey laughs at him, which is rude, Tony just offered to pay for their date, he’s being a gentleman, doesn’t he appreciate that? He informs Rhodey as such, which just makes him laugh harder, which makes Tony start laughing, and makes some of the other cafe customers stare at them. They don’t exactly care though, they both have a hot date. 

After finals, of course. Hopefully Tony can figure out the goddamn right-hand rule before then. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are life fuel and always appreciated!
> 
> I'm on Tumblr as [theotherwasdeath](https://theotherwasdeath.tumblr.com/)! Come say hi :D


End file.
